Lengthy and complex, yet couldn’t resist reading it a second time. No extrabiblical book has been more successful in helping me fall in love with God. This is also the book that introduced me to rabbinic thought/interpretive style.

The book really reads like two volumes — one a commentary of sorts on various prophet books and the other general commentary on prophetic tradition and history. Throughout, Heschel describes the “divine” pathos or anguish of a God who yearns for the finding of His lost bride or sons.

Heschel excels at correcting portraits of God’s wrath, the intention and means of the prophet, and the mission of Israel. This is a theological masterpiece that introduces profound implications for all other branches of faith-thinkings.

I simply can’t read the Tanakh, nor the New Testament, the same ever again. If not for the length, I’d beg all friends to read this.

"Heschel does a wonderful job in this classic text deconstructing Greek influences on our conception of God and the prophets. He brilliantly states that the job of the prophet is to empathize with the pathos of God. It's the same kind of thing we do. Heschel marched with King and is a radical thinker, right up our alley. I don't think he ever became a Christian. But in his polemic against other faiths, he seems to protect Jesus and Paul, in particular (never hurling a critique of them). But he does have good things to say about the over-emphasized patriarchs of our faith." -- Jonny

Heschel’s tome on the prophets of the Old Testament is singular. I read this over the course of many months, half of it in conjunction with a reading group whose insights I greatly appreciated. This was a book of two halves, the first a kind of exegetical engagement with many prophetic books and the second a much larger evaluation of what a prophet was, his historical reality, and how to understand what he wrote. I think I chaffed a bit at Heschel’s rather wandering style as well as disagreeing on some of his conclusions (or the fact that he didn’t take his conclusions far enough). However he has some truly brilliant bits of gold in here. It truly is a master work. I’m grateful to have read it, and I felt like I learned a lot.

Medium Recommendation to the academically inclined or anyone interested in a deep dive on the prophets by a prominent late-20th century Jewish scholar.

Excellent, very inclusive of interpretation and historical reference. A bit bulky, both physically and academically.

I am afraid that I just had to give up on this one. The prophets are real downers. They prophesy the fall of kingdoms, the punishment of the people and conquest by enemies. Repent! or else. This is not a good time to be reading about the end of the world.

Heaschel remains a brilliant and amazing writer. He was fascinated by the prophets, and this book was his vehicle to explore their lives. He tries to understand them in the context of the history of the times. His historical perspective is very informative and bit surprising. To me the prophets have always been read out of the context of their history - as a general reminder to me (and the Jewish people) of what can happen if I (they) stray from God's commandments. It turns out that they were not talking to me personally, or often, even to the Jewish people. The prophets often had a message specific to the kingdoms in which the Jewish people lived and the kings who ruled them. You all know some of the stories.

More Freud than I imagined for a book on the prophets, but also beautiful reflections on God reaching into history to draw us to Him. / 3.5

First published in 1962 and later appearing in two volumes, this work by an outstanding Jewish scholar explores the Old Testament prophets and their writings with great insight.

As for prophecy, Heschel explains it is “an interpretation of a particular moment in history, a divine understanding of a human situation” (17). As for a prophet, he “is a lonely man. His standards are too high, his stature too great, and his concern too intense for other men to share. Living on the highest peak, he has no company except God” (127).

In the context of God’s prophets, Heschel examines justice and righteousness, distrust of power, love and compassion, anger and forgiveness, and much more.

I note that Heschel had neither reference nor comment on Micah 5:2—the text foretelling the birthplace of the Messiah. Yet, at times his insights of God and His message were so great, I wondered why he had not embraced Jesus as the Christ.

This book is challenging and well-worth reading.

A classic !

I found this book to be a very rewarding experience. Abraham J. Heschel’s work in The Prophets is exceptional. This book provides a deep and unique perspective on who the prophets were. “What Manner of Man Is the Prophet?” was the first chapter and an absolute banger. Abraham is asking questions that no else came even close to asking in the Christian circles I grew up in. I don’t mean that negatively. He is an Orthodox Jew so his perspective is very different. I have to come to love and appreciate the rich heritage and perspective of the Jewish people from ancient times to modern.

This book is by no means an easy read but it’s also not crazy difficult. I would just say you probably need to have a genuine interest in the Old Testament prophets or else you might not make it haha.

This book has been profound for me. I love Heschel’s writing style, his chosen content, and his philosophy of God.

Born in 1907 in Warsaw, Poland, Heschel moved to the United States in 1940. He died in New York City in 1972. Heschel was a Rabbi and was considered a leader in Jewish theology and philosophy. Several books have been written about Heschel and he has also been commemorated by several colleges being named after him. Heschel served as a professor of Jewish mysticism at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America. Heschel was an activist in the Civil Rights Movement. He also protested the Vietnam War. Heschel was awarded the National Jewish Book Award in 1970 in the Jewish thought category for his work, Israel: An Echo of Eternity. A prolific writer, Heschel authored numerous books, far too many to list, however, following is a selection of some of his most popular publications: Heavenly Torah: As Refracted Through the Generations (2005), The Ineffable name of God: Man: Poems (2004), A Passion for Truth (1973), Israel: An Echo of Eternity (1969), Who is Man (1965), God in Search of Man: A Philosophy of Judaism (1955), Man’s Quest for God: Studies in Prayer and Symbolism (1954), Man is Not Alone: A Philosophy of Religion (1951), and The Sabbath: Its Meaning for Modern Man (1951).
HarperCollins Publishing is in New York, New York. Founded in 1817 by brothers John and James Harper, HarperCollins has become the second largest publisher of books in the world. They are in 17 countries and publish about 10,000 books a year in 16 languages through 120 imprints. Publishing both fiction and non-fiction, HarperCollins is not affiliated with a specific ideology and publishes across many different genres.
The Prophets explains what it was like for the prophets of the Old Testament. Heschel is an expert in this subject and has a way of disseminating information about the prophets clearly and compels the reader to want to continue reading. Heschel’s writing style book could be described as lovely.
Heschel has divided the book into two parts. The first provides a discussion on what, exactly, a prophet is, followed by chapters on “Amos,” “Hosea,” “Isaiah (Isa. 1-39),” “Micah,” “Jeremiah,” “Habakkuk” and “Second Isaiah.” The last three chapters in the first half of this book are “History,” “Chastisement” and “Justice”.
The second part of The Prophets includes the following chapters: “The Theology of Pathos,” “Comparisons and Contrasts,” “The Philosophy of Pathos,” “Anthropopathy,” “The Meaning and Mystery of Wrath,” “Ira Dei,” “Religion of Sympathy,” “Prophecy and Ecstasy,” “The Theory of Ecstasy,” “An Examination of the Theory of Ecstasy,” “Prophecy and Poetic Inspiration,” “Explanations of Prophetic Inspiration,” “Event and Experience,” “Prophets Throughout the World,” “Prophet, Priest and King” and finally a “Conclusion.”
​Although written by an academic, this book would hold the attention of anyone interested in prophetic literature.

Abraham Heschel's The Prophets offers a thorough and insightul analysis of the phenomenon of the prophet in the Hebrew Bible.

The first part of the book begins, modestly enough, as something of a commentary on the texts of the prophets. This begins with a general discussion of the sort of man that the prophet was, before going into individual readings of the prophets and discussion of the historical contexts in which they operated.

The book then moves into a theological and philosophical discussion of the phenomenon of Biblical prophecy, and then on to a discussion of the explanations for prophetic inspiration. As is to be expected of Heschel, these sections are intellectually substantial, but are written in a dense, but surprisingly lucid manner.

This book shows its age a bit in those parts engaging with psychoanalytical and anthropological approaches to the phenomenon of prophecy. But such arguments at least provide the contemporary reader with some insight as to how Heschel might extrapolate his arguments to counter more contemporary non-Biblical approaches to prophecy.

The book really hits its stride with a comparative study of prophets throughout the surrounding Biblical world. In this section, Heschel does a thorough job of cataloging the many distinctions that separate the particular character of Biblical prophecy from the superficially similar phenomena also found in that part of the ancient world.

The Prophets is a rewarding read. It should appeal to anyone with an interest in better understanding the prophets' words as well as their particular place within ancient Israel and Judah, and their unique relationship to the priesthood and the kings.